initial
in·i·tial/ɪˈnɪʃ.əl/adjective, noun, verb
initial is spelled I-N-I-T-I-A-L, 3 syllables: in·i·tial. The wrong spelling people search most is inital: about 470 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Initial is an adjective meaning “Chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin”.
How many letters and syllables are in initial?
| Letters | 7: I-N-I-T-I-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: in·i·tial |
| In writing | 52 times per million words; the 1,941st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, inital, about 470 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell initial?
Initial is spelled I-N-I-T-I-A-L. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for initial in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is initial?
Initial appears 52 times per million words in written English, the 1,941st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce initial?
- /ɪˈnɪʃ.əl/
- [ɪˈnɪʃ.(ə̯)l̩]
Initial has 3 syllables, split in·i·tial in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-initial.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of initial
- initials plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- initialing US, participle, present
- initialling UK, participle, present
- initialed US, participle, past
- initialled UK, participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does initial mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin.
Our initial admiration for their efficiency gave way to disgust about their methods.
- 2
Spatially first, placed at the beginning, in the first position; especially said of the first letter of a word.
The initial letter of names is usually printed with a capital letter.
noun
- 1
The first letter of a word or a name, especially of a person's full name (their initials).
- 2
A distinguished initial letter of a chapter or section of a document.
- 3
onset, part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus in phonetics and phonology.
verb
- 1
To sign one's initial(s), as an abbreviated signature.
Please initial each page and sign the contract in full at the bottom.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Initial in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | initial , lettrine, initiale, première lettre , parapher |
| German | anfänglich, ursprünglich , Anfangsbuchstabe, Initiale , erster , Initial |
| Portuguese | inicial , rubricar |
| Spanish | inicial, a quo , iniciales |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.